Benefit F.Burieva (AstanaBallet)

«Carmen Suite» and «Ballet Gala» will grace the stage of the Astana Ballet Theatre.

For over 19 years, Farhad Buriev has shone on the ballet stage, with the past 8 years marking his brilliance at the Astana Ballet Theatre. His repertoire includes Albert in Giselle and the Prince in The Nutcracker, Ferhad and the Vizier in The Legend of Love, Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, John the Baptist in Salomé, and Qutuz in Sultan Beibars, as well as leading roles in the ballets of George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Raimondo Rebeck, Nicolo Fonte, and others. In Carmen Suite, Farhad Buriev has embodied both the tragic figure of José and the sinister image of the Corregidor. The graphic precision of poses and the sharp, angular movements that define the male roles in Carmen Suite allow the characters’ inner worlds to be revealed through acting mastery, refined technique, expressive plasticity, and rich facial expression - qualities that the company’s premier, Farhad Buriev, possesses in full measure.

Carmen Suite

Music: Georges Bizet - Rodion Shchedrin

Libretto and choreography: Alberto Alonso (after the novella by Prosper Mérimée)

Choreographer: Timofey Lavrenyuk

Set designer: Zhandos Omarov

Costume designer: Natalia Protasova

Lighting designer: Evgeny Tikhonin

Carmen Suite is a priceless masterpiece of 20th-century ballet art. The story of the freedom-loving, passionate, and fiery Carmen continues to inspire choreographers worldwide, while the finest ballerinas dream of dancing this role. Carmen Suite was created especially for the legendary Maya Plisetskaya. Composer Rodion Shchedrin wrote a musical transcription based on themes from the opera, achieving true virtuosity in conveying, through music, the subtlest psychological nuances of the great opera and Mérimée’s novella. The vivid and unconventional choreography by Cuban choreographer Alberto Alonso, which brilliantly conveys the emotions and aspirations of the characters, has made Carmen Suite a favourite of dance enthusiasts and a treasured part of the world’s finest theatre repertoires.